In the current information age, information technology (IT) tools for managing files and data are extensively used in enterprises and other organizations, in order to store and transfer electronic documents and data over a network.
A document management system (for example, DocumentMall) can provide users with remote access (that is, through a network) to software applications and related services that would otherwise have to be installed on the user's local computer. For example, such a document management system may be configured to store documents as electronic files in a network-connected (and secure) document storage device, in order to protect the documents from theft or loss and to avoid unnecessarily occupying storage space local to the user computer or local computing environment, while making such files available on demand. The documents may include voluminous and/or sensitive material, and may be configured to provide searchable databases of all forms of legal, medical, financial, educational, scientific, and marketing documents for individuals and/or companies via a network.
Typically, when a conventional document management system receives user input of a request to retrieve a specific document from document storage of the document management system, the document management system transmits an instruction to the document storage based on the user input, and receives data (for the requested document) from the document storage in response to the instruction. The document management system then transmits the data returned from the document storage part to the user. FIG. 1A depicts an example of such a system 100, where client terminals 12-1 through 12-4 may upload and download documents to/from the document storage of the document management system 15, via the network 11.
There is a drawback, however, in that a user interface of such a conventional document management system is often static and inflexible, with the same set of rigid options presented to all users. This is despite the fact that certain groups of users may be interested in consistently accessing a specific set of services or application functionalities of the document management system.
FIG. 1B depicts an example of a typical static user interface of a conventional document management system. The user interface provides only basic options to all users for searching documents. In particular, a user is often forced to use a cumbersome explorer-type interface which requires the user to browse through all of the possible options that the universe of users may wish to access, and/or requires the user to drill down several levels (if a hierarchical presentation of such all possible options is presented).
There exists a need for an improved document management system which is not as difficult and time-consuming to use.